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If the Chromecast sounds like something you’d want, buy it. It’s easily worth $35 as it stands, and it’s bound to only get better as time goes on, the bugs get ironed out, and more apps come to support it.

If you’re an all-Apple household with $99 to spare, AirPlay and Apple TV work great. But, if you want a less costly solution that works with all your devices across platforms, and can wait while Google gradually gets more apps to adopt it, Chromecast is a winner.

In terms of functionality and performance, Chromecast is the cheapest and ideal method of streaming video on a TV and casting browser tabs to a TV. Chromecast is an inexpensive and easy-to-use dongle. It's also an impulse buy that packs more incentive than whim.

The bottom line is that the Google Chromecast is absolutely awesome for the money. If you want the ability to quickly and easily share multimedia content from your mobile device or PC to a big screen TV, spending the $35 for a Chromecast is a no brainer.

First Looks

While we take no issue with the shape itself, that flared out end does concern us that it may take up the space of two HDMI ports despite it needing only one to operate. Regardless, it's a solid little thing, constructed of black plastic and jammed with the 2.4Ghz wireless radio needed.

The compact 2-inch device will work with Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Movies and TV, and Google Play Music at launch, with support for future services, including Pandora, coming soon. It's a cross-platform device, with support for both Android and iOS devices.

From the looks of it, Chromecast is what we've been waiting for from a set-top-box for a long time. Rather than a platform-siloed experience like the one you get from Apple TV— Chromecast leaves the options wide open.

Google’s had some flops in the living room–Google TV hasn’t ever caught fire, and the Nexus Q has been a total disaster. And of course the Chromecast still could flop too. But at its price point ... I suspect people will tend to be forgiving of quirks.

This device connects with software, not with hardware, over a Wifi connection in your living room. It’ll work with the YouTube app on iOS, you can access this button with YouTube in a Chrome internet browser – and we’ll see what else as soon as hackers get their hands on it, too!

Once connected, you’ll be able to hand video and audio content from your phone, tablet or computer off to your TV set, where it’ll be available for all to see (or hear) on the biggest, nicest screen in your home.

If you’re settling in for a movie night, Chromecast supports a video queue to line up a playlist for the evening. Similar to Google’s ill-fated media streamer Nexus Q for music, the device allows your friends and family to add their own contributions to the queue, creating the ultimate playlist.

The Chromecast is a small HDMI dongle that plugs into any available HDMI port on your HDTV. But because HDMI doesn’t provide any power, the Chromecast needs constant power from a USB port as well. That can be a USB port on your TV if it has one.

With updated versions of Youtube, Google Play, Netflix and other apps on the phone side, Chromecast will offer functionality nearly identical to what we saw with the Nexus Q. While you use your phone or tablet as a remote, the Chromecast pulls down content directly from the web.

The device, which looks like one of those USB thumb drives, plugs directly into a TV’s HDMI port. It also comes with a handy extender cable for TVs like mine where there isn’t enough clearance for the device itself.

We don’t have a full list of supported devices, but at the $35 price it seems very likely that Google will bend over backwards to make Chromecast compatible for everyone who wants to use one, regardless of how old their gadgets are.

In the end, was it worth the $35? Yes. Will I keep using this device past the review period? Yes. Is it as good as Apple TV? It's not a real competitor, and it fills its own niche quite nicely. The Chromecast extends desktop media playback to an external HDTV and it does that well.

One important aspect is the Chromecast works on all devices, and is built to scale perfectly too. You can go from streaming a video from your Nexus 7, to swapping it out and “casting” a tab from Google Chrome on your iPhone 5 in seconds. It does it quick, accurately, and scales perfect.